Holders for electrical or electronic components are used in practical applications to accommodate and combine different electrical/electronic as well as mechanical components inside, for instance a motor vehicle door lock. An electro-mechanical assembly with the arrangement described above, is for instance described in DE 103 26 141 B4. The invention discloses a signal line and a contact field formed by a flexible printed circuit. The aim is to achieve a longer service life.
A comparable holder is disclosed in DE 20 2007 005 076 U1 that relates to a holder for a closing system, in particular a holder for electrical components of a motor vehicle door lock. The holder is made of a single piece and contains at least one first section and one second section. A delicate linear connection is provided between the two sections.
Finally DE 10 2006 037 159 A1 describes a wired electrical assembly and a process for its production. The invention discloses a holder in which the accommodated components are secured on or in a floor area of the said holder. Circuit wires running across the floor area are secured to the connection areas of the components. The free space above the floor area, covered by circuit wires, is filled with a sealing compound. This sealing compound substantially protects the contacts or contact connections of the electrical/electronic components retained and accommodated by the holder. The casting compound also provides the required stability of the thus assembled holder.
Because of this method, a relatively wide design of the thus formed potting cavity is inevitable, as prior to applying the sealing compound, the electrical and/or mechanical connections must be established. This means that the potting cavity to be filled must have sufficient space to allow the use of respective jointing techniques, such as soldering, gluing, bonding, etc. At present, potting cavities are, in any case, rather large. Consequently a not inconsiderable amount of sealing compound is required for filling the potting cavity and sealing the electrical/mechanical connections contained therein. This in turn results in considerable costs due to, on one hand, the required amount of sealing compound and, on the other hand, due to the fact that the filling of the potting cavity takes a considerable amount of time. This is where the invention provides a solution.